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According to Forbes : As part of the deal, current operator and chairman Anthony Precourt, who announced nearly a year ago that he intended to move the team to Austin, Texas, will get his wish. Although the new Crew owners are paying an "expansion fee" of $150 million, according to my source, they get the team in its current form. Precourt, who will not pay a fee, effectively gets an expansion team in that he needs to build a new franchise. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeoz...le-price-said-to-be-150-million/#2ee163c96326

But he sure did take advantage of the system to get exactly what he wanted and bypass the expansion process. He paid $68 million for the team 5 years ago, by the way.

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But $68mm 5 years ago was market. Orlando paid $70mm for their expansion fee back then. The $150 (if it goes to MLS and not Precourt) is a market expansion fee for today. What Precourt really did was get Austin a team without MLS approval for the city and it took him 5 years to do so. Who really got fleeced were the other cities in line for teams who used the correct process and followed the rules.

But $68mm 5 years ago was market. Orlando paid $70mm for their expansion fee back then. The $150 (if it goes to MLS and not Precourt) is a market expansion fee for today. What Precourt really did was get Austin a team without MLS approval for the city and it took him 5 years to do so. Who really got fleeced were the other cities in line for teams who used the correct process and followed the rules.

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Hence the use of the words "bypass the expansion process". You have countered my main point with... my main point.

The "by the way" signified that the price of the expansion team was of tangential relevance.

Hence the use of the words "bypass the expansion process". You have countered my main point with... my main point.

The "by the way" signified that the price of the expansion team was of tangential relevance.

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Precourt "won" when he bought the Crew and MLS agreed to a negotiated clause allowing him to move to Austin. Everything that has happened since it's a result of that deal, and the league agreed to it. That's win-win not 1-0, at least for those 2 parties.

Precourt "won" when he bought the Crew and MLS agreed to a negotiated clause allowing him to move to Austin. Everything that has happened since it's a result of that deal, and the league agreed to it. That's win-win not 1-0, at least for those 2 parties.

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The league is adding an expansion team and not getting any expansion fee. That's a $150mm loss to me.

Had Precourt merely exercised his option to move the team, they would have received the expansion fee for a new team in Columbus or wherever.

So the league is getting something from the Haslam consortium. Maybe it's $150mm, maybe less, because he's bailing them out of an embarrassing situation.
But then the winner isn't Precourt. Precourt paid the going rate for an expansion team several years ago in a city he did not want, with an option to move to Austin. He was forced to operate in Columbus for 5 years before getting what he wanted. I don't feel sorry for him, but he's hardly the big winner. That would be Haslam -- if in fact he and his gang got a discount off the current expansion fee -- and the politicians in Ohio, who leveraged a statute of dubious enforceability, and whose stated time period had already expired, into bluffing MLS to stay in Columbus even though the league showed no interest in staying there.
Losers are Crew fans, who keep their team but now have the same ownership as the Cleveland Browns.

So the league is getting something from the Haslam consortium. Maybe it's $150mm, maybe less, because he's bailing them out of an embarrassing situation.
But then the winner isn't Precourt. Precourt paid the going rate for an expansion team several years ago in a city he did not want, with an option to move to Austin. He was forced to operate in Columbus for 5 years before getting what he wanted. I don't feel sorry for him, but he's hardly the big winner. That would be Haslam -- if in fact he and his gang got a discount off the current expansion fee -- and the politicians in Ohio, who leveraged a statute of dubious enforceability, and whose stated time period had already expired, into bluffing MLS to stay in Columbus even though the league showed no interest in staying there.
Losers are Crew fans, who keep their team but now have the same ownership as the Cleveland Browns.

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Actually the Browns are finally starting to look like an NFL team under Haslam ownership.